Tag: Worm

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

If Agitation!Taylor could see herself … talk about character development. How do you think she would feel about “Skitter”, and how do you think she would react to Sophia being a hero shortly after her trigger event?

“What the fuck are you doing, future me?!”

And yeah, if Taylor found out then, it’d probably ruin her perception of heroes pretty harshly. Like it did when she found out later, but worse, because she hadn’t had the Undersiders and Armsmaster to prepare her for that kind of shaking of her worldview. At that time, Taylor had some pretty rigid ideas of black and white morality between villains and heroes, which had already been largely torn down before she discovered Sophia’s identity in Extermination.

I’m not sure which extreme she would end up swinging towards – either she’d drop her idea of becoming a hero entirely, or she’d lean into it much harder and set her aim towards making things better, like she did at the end of Extermination, from the start. She might also be more willing to accept her position in the Undersiders as a genuine thing, making the Decision earlier.

End of Prey 14.5

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This was another good one. 🙂

I found myself talking to Taylor’s deaf ears a lot regarding two issues: Going back into the fray (though given the trouble Cache was in, it was probably worth it), and her attitude towards Amy after Amy showed frankly not unreasonable restraint in helping villains (not helped by Amy’s reluctant addition to Bailey proving unwanted, though that’s really not Amy’s fault). I’m not sure that’s a bad thing, though. The tension in the chapter is somewhat aided by the knowledge that the Bakuda carpet is coming in time (though presumably only after the Protectorate and Wards get out of the blast zone), and the bits with Amy serve to show Taylor’s harder side when she has things to do and little patience for those who stand in the way of that.

I very much enjoyed Taylor fighting alongside Weld. Not just for shippy reasons, either – my shipping of them has faded to the point where that’s just an afterthought – but because it’s neat to see them silently slip into teamwork like they did, and it’s an interesting break from the team dynamics we’re used to. Weld also cemented his worth as a quite capable fighter when it counts, which was cool.

I do kinda hope there’s an answer for why the cars didn’t stick to his blades, though. That was kind of distracting. I’m guessing I’ll have a few asks about that, unless answering it is spoilery, so I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys have to say about it.

Crawler’s finally getting some significant attention, which is fun. The bigger kitty seems to be a bit of a raging asshole, but that’s to be expected. The Nine can’t all be Bonesaw. Only the ones Bonesaw can perform plastic and brain surgery on can be Bonesaw.

So, next time, I guess we’re going to be dealing with Crawler somehow. Maybe the silk technique could work again, but Skitter is very low on bugs now compared to the millions she had before the bombs, and the surviving spiders might be out of silk.

Also, it might not be next chapter, but I think Grue using his darkness is going to become relevant. “Grue was also using his darkness, oddly enough.” with no further elaboration is very suspicious. Maybe he’ll be borrowing a bit of power that helps him save the day?

So yeah… see you there!

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Crawler paced forward with an almost anticipatory slowness.  I could make out his tongue, licking around his lips.

Y’know, I think I predicted that there was no way we’d be having the focus on both Siberian and Crawler in the same Arc, but while this is an ensemble fight and I wouldn’t say he’s in focus in quite the same way the others have been (yet), Crawler is getting more attention in this Arc than before.

I suppose that’s only natural with the dwindling of their numbers and the fact that he was the only remaining member who hadn’t gotten much attention… First we don’t see him until a whole Arc after we got to meet the rest, and then he’s the last to get significant attention? It’s like he’s on a delay, slow-paced like his idle walking. Though I still think Jack’s going to be the last one to be in focus.

Anyway, while I did make that prediction because they’re both so powerful, it would be quite appropriate to have them together in an Arc titled Prey. They’ve got a lot of things in common, and among them is that they treat enemies as prey, and play with their food.

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So it sounds like Victoria isn’t quite dead yet, and won’t die since that didn’t kill her outright. Which means she needs to allow Amy to heal her if she wants to have her flesh back. Oh man, I like the sound of Vicky having to face that dilemma. 😀

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I pulled a grenade free.  Maybe it could distract him long enough for her to-

Didn’t you already use your last grenade?

Crawler surged forward, slamming his head into her.  Like a spiked volleyball, she slammed hard into the ground.

Aaand there goes the forcefield.

I could see her skin turning red, then black, where the spittle had covered it.  Flesh melted away to reveal muscle, then the acidic vomit began to eat away at that.  She screamed, frantic, thrashing, oblivious to the flaming patches of ground that she was rolling into.

What a way to go. :/

The bugs I’d placed on my teammates told me they weren’t close.  Glory Girl and Cache were down and needed immediate medical attention – Cache had managed to call in the rest of the Protectorate and the remaining Wards, but he’d collapsed into the arms of one of the adults.

Good job, Cache.

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Mannequin fell.

How the hell did I manage that?  Between the recoil and the shock of what I’d just managed, it was all I could do to stay seated.

Good work, Taylor!

Now how long before he’s back up?

I aimed and fired again at his prone form, the shot going off just before he rolled to his feet.  I couldn’t make out if I hit or not.

Two paragraphs. Sounds about right.

Crawler was distracted just long enough for Cache to bring out the first heroes.  Glory Girl, Prism, Miss Militia, Triumph…

Heya! Now don’t die on us right away, folks.

Weld tumbled to the ground, and switched targets to the retreating Mannequin.  Maybe he’d coordinated something with the others.  I couldn’t say.

Oh yeah, I suppose he would still have his earpiece.

Glory Girl, in her all-concealing fireproof suit, certainly seemed ready to serve as the frontline defense.

Makes sense, given that she’s pseudo-invulnerable.

I was so busy tracking Mannequin, looking for an opportunity to shoot him again, that I nearly missed what happened next. 

Uh oh?

Crawler got close enough for Glory Girl to swing a punch.  She took the bait and swung, then twisted in mid-air to deliver a kick.

Oh cod.

The mention of “bait” doesn’t give me high hopes for how this is going.

In any case, what did you expect these attacks to accomplish, Victoria?

He pulled just out of reach of both hits, then opened his mouth to retch spittle and bile all over her.

Hmm. I wonder if corrosion works for slowly tearing down the forcefield, or if she needs to get hit again for the acid to do anything.

It had the same effect on her costume that it did on Cache, only far, far faster.  In moments, she was down to the skin-tight costume she wore beneath her white and gold dress, her forcefield protecting her.

Oh, alright, so her regular blue and black costume goes outside the forcefield, but the forcefield does protect her for now. She’s probably glad she had that skintight under-costume on, huh…